After N3.6 million wedding, man leaves marriage.

By Japheth Prosper.

Wedding plans started in earnest and the expenses were climbing up the steep like a stallion on crack. I could not understand why she didn’t want us to look at it from my own point of view. It made me sick. We were a young couple and needed to take life easy but Tara would none of it.
“I am one of the most respected choristers in my church and also one of the top executives in my office,” she argued. “You don’t expect me to do a small wedding, do you?”

I didn’t want to argue too much over the matter because her salary was twice what I earned. My elder brother, Dafe who had been married for over eight years advised that I should take things easy and avoid argument with her until we were both settled down as man and wife.

“Do you mean that I should not query this outrageous sum that she wants us to spend on this wedding?”I asked my brother when I went to show him the budget from our event planner; we were going to spend three million six hundred and seventy thousand naira! Although Tara said I should part with only one million naira so that she would make the larger chunk available, it still did not sit well in my head. That outlandish figure continually gave me migraines.

Even Dafe could not hide his displeasure when I passed the paper to him but he still maintained I take things easy with her.
He was shocked when he took the paper from me. The hall where the event would hold in a five star hotel was going to cost us eight hundred thousand naira. There were many other expenses pegged with outrageous sums. For instance, the makeup artist was going to take a hundred and ninety thousand naira. Tara said that was a good bargain as her friend who lived in Lekki spent times three of that amount on her own wedding.

Charles,” Dafe put his arm across my shoulder. “If she is bringing all that sum as the woman and you are to bring one million naira, I advise you don’t complain. Women don’t seem to understand that weddings are not as important as marriages. The wedding will last for only one day but both of you will be in the marriage for the rest of your lives. What happens when the children begin to come into the picture? All the same, please let sleeping dog lie. This is a phase and it will pass.”
Dafe agreed to help in his own little way. He promised to give me the sum of two hundred thousand naira. My elder sister, Juliet and her husband promised to assist me with a hundred thousand naira but she did not hide her discontentment.

See this too, Nigerian Man Blames Wife Over Ectopic Pregnancy and Two Miscarriages. What a World!

She was totally against us spending all that money just for the wedding.
Charles, even if your fiancée has a money tree planted in her bedroom, I still maintain that the money the two of you are planning to spend is too much. Have you thought about your sustainance after the wedding?” she blurted angrily as she spoke with me on the phone. “Listen my brother, I have been married for over ten years now and I must tell you that none of the over one hundred people that attended my wedding and ate to their fill has called to ask how I am doing with my family.

This whole wedding thing is just too glorified. It’s just a white elephant project that young struggling couples should distance themselves from.”
I tried to talk Tara but she was still adamant. Even her younger sister, Ronke secretly confided in me that her parents were against our spending too much money but because they were not going to be financially involved, they reluctantly gave it the nod.

Tara continued “Charles, you don’t have to give yourself headaches over this issue. It will come and pass. Do you know the number of persons that will be attending or the gift items that we will get from them? I have a feeling that my pastor and my boss will each give us a car.” Tara told me explicitly. “The gift items we will get will surpass the money we are going to spend I bet you. Don’t underestimate your wife to be o.” (smiles).

That was the last time we talked about my fears. We fixed a date for the wedding; Saturday March 28th, 2020. My elder brother gave me the money he promised me on the 2nd of December 2019. My sister too did shortly before Christmas. I got the six hundred thousand naira loan I applied for in my office from our cooperative. Tara invited Asabe, the event planner and we looked at the list again for the umpteenth time.
“I want all the souvenirs and the invitation cards to be ready before the middle of January.” She told the lady. “I have already ordered the aso ebi from Dubai and they will be arriving before the end of the month.”
I was surprised to hear about the aso ebi because she never discussed it with me but because I had been advised not to argue with her, I kept mute. However, inside me a battle was brewing.

We gave the event planner the money and she set out to work immediately. She brought the design of what the cake and the hall would look like the following week and we told her we liked it. By the end of December, she called to tell us that over eighty percent of the job had been taken care of. She brought the wedding gowns for Tara to choose from. Initially, Tara had insisted that she would like to wear a brand new wedding gown but after we talked about it for a while, she agreed to rent one so long as it would fit her perfectly. She was a very pretty woman who was always the cynosure of all eyes.

To be continued…. .

Let me pose this candid line of reasoning to every reader here. Was this not avoidable if this engaged couple (Tara and Charles) had upheld the timeless values of Holy matrimony and commit themselves to the tenets of marriage as God intended.? Please kindly drop your comments and other observations in the comment box below. I promise to respond to each. Thank you.

Kindly cick the link below for the conclusion of the story,

Man Walks Out of Marriage, One Week After N3.6m Wedding (The Concluding Part).